Andy Burnham

Sir David Amess was murdered by an Islamist terrorist, another in a long line of religious fanatics who have committed atrocities in the United Kingdom, slaughtering innocent people in the name of a medieval, militant interpretation of their faith. We know that MI5 is constantly working to thwart further Islamist attacks, thankfully with considerable success. And yet our politicians seem far more comfortable talking about Islamophobia than confronting the ideological threat that has already claimed so many British lives. I’m sick and tired of the increasingly binary debate about what it means to be British or English. Because, to my mind, the answer is remarkably simple. It’s about values. It doesn’t matter what colour your skin is, where your parents were born or what your ethnicity happens to be. What matters is what you believe in. Democracy. Free speech. The rule of law. Tolerance of other religions and beliefs. Equality before the law. A belief in individual liberty. And, yes, some affection for this country and its traditions, rather than an instinctive contempt for everything it represents. Those are the values that, for my money, define Britishness, and Englishness too. But if you subscribe to the worldview of religious fanatics who believe that their interpretation of scripture entitles them to impose their beliefs on others, subordinate women, persecute minorities, suppress dissent or murder those they regard as infidels, then you represent a threat not only to Britain but to Western civilisation itself. And our politicians need to find the courage to say so. The British public can see what is happening. And I suspect growing numbers are thoroughly sick of being patronised and gaslit by politicians who respond to every new ideologically motivated atrocity with the same exhausted platitudes about diversity, tolerance and how the terrorists “will never divide us”. We’ve heard it after 7/7. After Westminster Bridge. After London Bridge. After the Manchester Arena bombing. And after the murder of Sir David Amess. But who, exactly, is trying to divide us? It isn’t the ordinary British citizen who wants secure borders, freedom of speech, the rule of law and a society in which people can live peacefully regardless of their background. It’s the fanatics who reject those values, despise the society that protects their freedoms and, in the most extreme cases, are prepared to murder their fellow citizens in pursuit of their ideology. And until our political class is prepared to speak plainly about that ideology, rather than retreating into euphemism and platitude, we will never confront the threat with the seriousness it deserves. You cannot defeat an enemy you are too cowardly even to name.